ICAD Week 8

Week 8 of Index-Card-a-Day 2017

For Week 8, I decided to do self-portraits. I did a self-portrait for a title card for ICAD 2017 and then again for 23/61 (my birthday), but as my series of drawings of ballpoint blue women has grown, and as I thought about things in response to listening to an older podcast episode (catch Episode 248 for more about that), I decided to do self-portraits for this, the penultimate week of the 2017 ICAD challenge. I know I want to do family members and casts of characters from certain shows in coming weeks, but some of that I’ve been putting off until after ICAD ends. For ICAD, I wanted to stick with the women I have been choosing from Sktchy… until for some reason, I decided that self-portraits made sense. I went with self-portraits, thinking that I might do self-portraits from the past and into the present–me through time.

It was a rocky week. I tend to enjoy self-portraits and the whole process, but after day 2, I was ready to dump the self-portrait sub-theme, and I talked about that in the Creativity Matters Group. I got an invaluable pep talk, and I decided to do day 3. And then, I did day 4. And then day 5. At 5, I felt like I could call 5 a successful series and quit, but this “thing” in me said that weeklong series should be a full 7. So, I did day 6. And I wanted to quit. But I then did day 7.

Ultimately I am glad I stuck with this sub-series. I might wish I had chosen other pictures or spent more time finding photos from the years past. But I went with what I could find at Flickr and on my phone. The final three are all 2017 photos. I like several of the drawings, and I am really happy with days 7 and 8. Day 5 gave me a look at caricature. Day 3 gave me a chance to work with pose. I would like to try that photo larger even to get the full picture in. Had I given up, I wouldn’t have had the experience of drawing these. I am really glad that I stuck with it.

Sometimes self-imposed challenges and rubrics are the hardest to navigate. This small series really pushed me and, for the first time this summer, really caused me to risk losing continuity with the challenge. It was also much harder to share these daily drawings because it is even harder for people to comment when the drawing… is you!

Today starts the final stretch of ICAD, a bit short of a full week left. It has gone so quickly!

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Using the library, when possible, is always my first recommendation.